Thank a Rich Person
Do you like your car? Thank a
rich person. 100+ years ago, cars were the playthings of rich people. Early 20th
century cars cost as much as a house. Rich people bought cars as status symbols
and had chauffeurs to drive them around. What a bunch of stuffed shirts! But as
more cars were sold, manufacturers found ways to make them cheaper. Henry Ford
wanted to build cars for everyman, and his Model T assembly line did exactly
that.
Do you like your phone? Thank a
rich person. The telephone was primitive and expensive when first introduced.
My paternal grandparents’ family didn’t even have one during part of the 1930s
because of the cost. Calling out of town was an extra expense until recently,
when unlimited long distance plans became common. The cell phone, introduced 40
years ago, was at first primitive, bulky and expensive to buy and use. Now,
just about everybody has one, and smart phones are becoming the norm. This progress
was made possible by the people who could first afford phones – the rich.
Do you like your computer? Thank
a rich person. Personal computers were very expensive when they were first
produced. They were toys for people who could afford them. I knew someone who
had an early computer in 1977. He’d spent about $5,000 on it, equivalent to
nearly $19,000 in 2012. That much money today would buy a couple dozen decent
computers today – computers with vastly more power and storage than the primitive
1977 toy.
Do you like having a job? Thank a
rich person. Money-making enterprises are never founded by, say, a person
living under the Bijou Street Bridge in Colorado Springs. Somebody with an idea
and/or money to invest finds a thing or a service that people want. In
producing the product, the entrepreneur earns more money and hires people. If
the product becomes popular, the person hires more workers. We’ve seen a lot of
this in the tech sector – companies like Microsoft, Apple and Google have become
some of the most valuable. The wealth and jobs they have generated and the
products they offer have made life much better.
Do you like having a clean
environment? Thank a rich person. Especially thank the engine that allowed
people to get rich – free-market capitalism. The wealth created by
entrepreneurs permits us to care about more than mere survival. Long before
there was an EPA, citizens began demanding a cleaner environment. Furthermore,
many products had side effects that helped the environment. John D.
Rockefeller’s kerosene saved the whales – it removed the need for whale oil to
light the night. Central heating reduced indoor air pollution from burning wood
in stoves and fireplaces.
The rich are much vilified by the
left. Wealthy citizens are criticized for not paying enough taxes, when they
pay a disproportionately high percentage of income tax. The top 1% pay about
37% of the income tax. The top 10% pay about 68%. But the bottom 50% pay only
about 3%, and many of those pay nothing or get money back through the so-called
Earned Income Tax Credits. The people who are most productive in our economy
and who provide most of the employment for everybody else are also taxed the
most.
If you are a wealthy person,
thank you for your contribution to the economy. If you are a person who thinks
the rich should “give back” by paying even higher taxes than the exorbitant
amounts they already do, you haven’t learned the moral of the golden goose.
Labels: environment, jobs, rich, taxes
posted by Dick T. @ 5:28 PM
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